A world full of foreigners in London

Brexit is back on the agenda: Andy Burnham, the new British Prime Minister, has revived the possibility of the United Kingdom rejoining the European Union. Not that talk of the fateful decision taken in 2016 has ever ceased: over the last ten years, Brexit has generated countless essays, debates, studies, books, forecasts and articles.

Enrico Franceschini, on the other hand, has managed to turn it into a novel: a semi-serious thriller, somewhere between the grotesque and the comic, a completely improbable story but with events rooted in reality. “Arrivederci Londra” recounts the dismay of twelve journalists of various nationalities, who have long been based in the UK, when the 2016 referendum produced an unexpected and devastating result.

They all regard London as their home and their adopted homeland. Suddenly, they feel like strangers and are treated as such. And whilst, professionally speaking, Brexit is an opportunity to write an important story, on a personal level they feel betrayed and cast aside. Without giving away the gripping plot, suffice it to say that the twelve correspondents do not take it well.

The spark – a xenophobic attack suffered by one of them, the mild-mannered Polish journalist Ryszard – sets off a wave of anger and a desire for revenge against that crowd of Britons who voted for Brexit. The complaints and chatter around a restaurant table turn into concrete – and even violent – actions: an improvised but organised squad of anti-Brexit vigilantes. Among them is Andrea Muratori, ‘the Italian of this dirty dozen from the print media’, an extrovert, resourceful and very susceptible to female charms.

The ‘incidents’ are multiplying, and it isn’t long before Scotland Yard springs into action and a Metropolitan Police inspector, the capable Rachel Bailey, begins to investigate – perhaps a little too closely. The journalists, who believed themselves to be above suspicion and untouchable, gradually feel cornered and risk losing control of the situation.